Quote:
Originally Posted by gomoho
As a former REALTOR I told many clients "I know you invested a lot of money to make the house look beautiful", but you won't recoup it all. What does happen though it makes the house more saleable and someone will probably pick yours over one that is not updated. So the shorter time to sell could be looked at as recouping some of the money.
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I am not a realtor but I took our realtor's advice to heart last year when we had our Cincinnati home on the market and we repainted the entire house in and out in neutrals, and we had already updated all light fixtures and faucets in the last three years and all surfaces in baths and kitchen in granite and kitchen appliances in stainless steel too.
We caught up on any delayed repairs and tried to look at the house with the eye of a home inspector who we knew would come in eventually.
We decluttered and minimized and had all carpet cleaned and all draperies were spotless and I updated the bedspreads and added a few "now" accessories.
Our realtor told us that in a down market it mattered little how low you priced it with the market glutted with low priced homes. The attractivly presented ones would sell first.
I took out "my" colors and " my" style and made our home look as much like an unlived in model as I could. We priced it as low as we could stomach and expected it to be a long time on the market. She also suggested that we remove all perennials and cut back shrubs neatly and SMALL, put down fresh mulch and have trees trimmed..We also replaced cushions on outdoor furniture and decluttered the garage and had it sparkling too. I really hadn't noticed HOW much the out door cushions had faded or how cluttered our garage had become. I brought all of those updated things with us so I didn't feel like I lost money on that outlay of cash.
She said that if you want to sell your home, have it ready right out of the chute. She said some people start changing things after it goes on the market, when they don't have results and lose the potential buyers that saw it and didn't like it.
It sold in nine days with a bidding war and we got more than our asking price, but not as much as we could have gotten a few years back.
That is our experience, actually a year ago in June. Things may be a little better now...I hope so anyway for all of you.